Waters still muddied around Ruataniwha process

Conservation
Minister Nick Smith won’t be getting a ‘sorry’ from
Labour any time soon, its Conservation spokesperson Ruth
Dyson says.

“Dr Smith wants us to apologise for
suggesting he interfered in the Ruataniwha dam process,
following the Speaker’s decision not to act on a
privileges complaint from Labour.

“But if Dr Smith reads
the Speaker’s letter outlining his decision he would see
it confirms the Minister’s role in the process has been
less than squeaky clean, noting that in response to oral
questions ‘The Minister’s answer did not clearly address
the question’ and that the ‘answer given was certainly
contestable.’

“Far from endorsing Dr Smith, it paints
him in a quite unflattering light.

“The fact is Dr Smith
has repeatedly failed to tell the House the full story about
his involvement in DoC’s Ruataniwha submission.

“His
response to the Speaker failed to address the main concerns
raised by Labour, adding further grist to our claims that he
knows more than he’s letting on.

“Labour is still
waiting for responses from Dr Smith to official information
act requests, which he claims he released a week ago, plus
responses to written questions were only forthcoming after
complaints had been made to the Speaker.

“If Dr Smith
has nothing to hide then why is he hell-bent on preventing
the release of every scrap of information possible?

“It
is clear that this process has been dodgy from the outset.
It’s time Nick Smith acknowledged his full involvement in
the Ruataniwha decision.”

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